de Pury Roland & Jacqueline

De Pury, Pastor Roland De Pury, Jacqueline File 1066 As early as July 14, 1940, in the Protestant church on Lanterne Street, in the heart of Lyons, Pastor Roland de Pury preached against the “base complacency” of the inhabitants of unoccupied France: “If France betrays the hope that the persecuted are placing in her, she will no longer be France.” Roland and Jacqueline de Pury were Swiss citizens who exhibited stunning audacity in leading a spiritual and humanitarian rebellion of Protestants in Lyons. Wave after wave of refugees, mainly Jews, lived with them and their eight children in the Croix-Rousse quarter. Roland de Pury collaborated with Father Pierre Chaillet (q.v.), head of the rescue organization Amitié Chrétienne, to facilitate full cooperation among members of these two Christian communities in rescuing Jews. Pury was young, charismatic, and resourceful. He was an inspiring orator who had great influence over his congregants, who hid Jews who had previously found shelter in the Pury home. Scores of clergymen throughout the Lyons area took him for a model. Late on the night of January 27, 1943, Amitié Chrétienne activists held an emergency meeting at his house. That morning, the Gestapo had arrested Father Chaillet and Jean-Marie Soutou in the organization office. It happened that many Jews were expected to visit the office the following day, some for material assistance and others for forged papers. They had to find a way to prevent them from entering the office, where the Gestapo had laid a trap for them. A solution was found. Germaine Ribière (q.v.), a volunteer with Amitié Chrétienne, volunteered to dress up as a cleaning woman. She procured a pail and some rags, and spent the day scrubbing the stairwell of the building in which Amitié Chrétienne was located. Whenever Jews approached the building, Ribière swiftly shooed them away. This strategy was successful and not a single Jew fell into the Gestapo trap. On Sunday, May 13, 1943, asPastor de Pury, dressed in his pastor’s robe, prepared to lead mass for the large congregation, two men in civilian attire burst in. They seized Pury, forced him into a car, and sped away. His wife Jacqueline, Cardinal Gerlier (q.v.), and the chairman of the Protestant Federation, Pastor Marc Boegner (q.v.), attempted vainly to persuade the Gestapo to release him. On October 28, 1943, in the town of Bregenz, Austria, Pastor de Pury was turned over to local authorities and exchanged for German spies who had been arrested in Switzerland. After the liberation, he returned to Lyons. On May 30, 1976, Yad Vashem recognized Pastor Roland and Jacqueline de Pury as Righteous Among the Nations.